International Development written question – answered at on 25 February 2013.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps her Department is taking to measure the effect of its support for health system strengthening in low-income countries.
The Department for International Development (DFID) measures the success of its support for health in terms of specific results and outcomes for poor people (such as reduced burden of disease, improved child survival and better maternal health). Isolating the impact of health systems strengthening investments on health outcomes is complicated because many other factors (social, political and economic) also influence outcomes. There is, however, growing evidence that health systems interventions, such as improved training of health workers or fairer health financing systems, can lead to more use of better quality services, which in turn contributes to better health outcomes. Countries with stronger health systems have been shown to have lower infant, child and maternal mortality rates.
DFID carries out monitoring and evaluation of its programmes to learn lessons about what works and where in health systems strengthening. DFID is also investing in research to improve the measurement of the effect of systems strengthening on health outcomes, for example by supporting the World Health Organisation to develop indicators and methods to monitor and evaluate progress in health financing and universal health coverage.
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